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Hello there! Throughout  Kinesiology 361 I was also enrolled in a 200 hour yoga teacher training  course. I began to notice that some of the content in Kinesiology 361 made me think about the content in the yoga teacher training, and vice versa. I decided to create my motor scrapbook on one concept that I learned during the teacher training: Patanjali's eight limbs of yoga.
This eight-fold path guides the yogi into a meaningful and purposeful spiritual life.

This padlet will take a very holistic approach to the comparison of Kinesiology 361 concepts and the eight limbs of yoga. I am a very symbolic thinker, so some of the concepts wont directly relate, but will be loosely related. I hope you enjoy!

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Yama refers to our interactions with outside forces. It includes ideals such as nonviolence, truthfulness, and non-stealing. This sense of moral integrity is the first limb of yoga, because it is the most basic. Without yama, it is nearly impossible to achieve any other limb of yoga.

The way we interact with the outside world is through stimulus and response patterns. This expresses our behavior to the external world, which is the basis for yama. This stimulus response pattern begins with stimulus identification. For example, a friend spills her morning coffee all over your new blouse. Stimulus clarity, stimulus intensity, and stimulus pattern all affect the rate at which a stimulus is identified. If you're in a dim coffee shop, or if you forgot to put your contacts in this morning, you may not notice the spill for an extra bit of time. Next, we must select a response. This is our decision making process. Do you jump back and stand up quickly in order to get a paper towel? Or stay put, and have your friend get a towel so you don't worsen the size of the stain? Or maybe you yell at your friend uncontrollably (this would not be good Yama!) Hick developed the idea that our response selection is greatly affected by the number of stimulus-response options.

Inspiration to wrestle with:

In Hick's study, each stimulus had an exact response. In yoga and in life, we often have many acceptable reactions to an occurrence.

Attached is an article about the 5 basic Yamas, one of two limbs with subcategories.

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The self-awareness you gain by practicing the five yamas can help you transform negative energy and cultivate a deep, abiding sense of peace. Here is a brief definition of each yama, along with some advice about how to start practicing them today.

Yama 1: Non-Harming (Ahimsa)

In Sanskrit the prefix a means "not," while himsa means "harming, injuring, killing, or doing violence." Ahimsa, the first of the yamas and the highest ranking among them, is the practice of non-harming or non-violence. This is the key, the sages tell us, to maintaining both harmonious relationships in the world and a tranquil inner life.

At a deeper level, ahimsa is less a conscious process than a natural consequence of yoga practice. As our journey unfolds, it leads to awareness of the peaceful and enduring core that is our true nature; the desire to prevent harm is a spontaneous expression of that awareness. We begin to realize that the inner self in others is identical to our own inner self, and we wish no harm to come to any being.

Practice being more kind, accepting, and forgiving of yourself and others.

Practice Tip: Practice being more kind, accepting, and forgiving of yourself and others. According to the sages, when ahimsa is fully embraced, an inner confidence emerges that is deep seated and surprisingly powerful.

Yama 2: Truthfulness (Satya)

The word sat, in Sanskrit, means "that which exists, that which is." Satya, in turn, means "truthfulness"-seeing and reporting things as they are rather than the way we would like them to be.

Practice Tip: Inwardly learn to recognize the cascade of fears and other negative emotions that prompt you to twist reality. Once you have understood and processed these fears, your thoughts, speech, and actions can be realigned with the truth, even as you look more deeply into your needs and desires. Outwardly, refrain from telling lies and speak with kindness, compassion, and clarity.

Yama 3: Non-Stealing (Asteya)

The word steya means "stealing." When it is combined with the prefix a, it yields the third yama, asteya: non-stealing. We are most likely to associate stealing with tangible objects, but intangibles, such as information and emotional favors, are more likely to be the objects stolen in our world.

Practice Tip: Because the urge to steal arises from a sense of unhappiness, incompleteness, and envy, the solution is to practice giving any chance you get. Give food; give money; give time. Since wealth is ultimately a state of mind, you will feel increasingly wealthy; and through selfless giving, your sense of inner wealth may bring you outer wealth.

The practice of non-possessiveness helps us to examine our assumptions and guides us back to healthy relationships with others.

Yama 4: Moderating the Senses (Brahmacharya)

The literal translation of brahmacharya is "walking in God-consciousness." Practically speaking, this means that brahmacharya turns the mind inward, balancing and supervising the senses, and leads to freedom from dependencies and cravings. And the sages tell us that when the mind is freed from domination by the senses, sensual pleasures are replaced by inner joy.

Practice Tip: Making wise choices about the books and magazines you read, the movies you see, and the company you keep will help you conserve energy and keep your mind focused and dynamic. Being moderate in all sensual activities so that you don't dwell on them, staying committed and faithful to one partner in a relationship that is mutually supportive-this is the middle path of brahmacharya.

Yama 5: Non-Possessiveness (Aparigraha)

Graha means "to grasp" and pari means "things": aparigraha means "not grasping things," or non-possessiveness. It helps us achieve a balanced relationship with the things that we each call "mine."

A yogic maxim says, "All the things of the world are yours to use, but not to own." That is the essence of aparigraha. Whenever we become possessive, we are in turn possessed, anxiously holding onto our things and grasping for more. But when we make good use of the possessions that come to us and enjoy them without becoming emotionally dependent on them, then they neither wield power over us nor lead to false identities and expectations.

Practice Tip: Examine your own tendencies toward possessiveness. Do you take better care of an object in your possession than one belonging to someone else? Do you acquire more of something than you can use? Do you depend too much on others, give more in a relationship than is healthy for you, replace mutual give-and-take with the need for tight-fisted control, or attempt to increase your self-esteem by gaining someone else's love? The practice of non-possessiveness helps us to examine our assumptions and guides us back to healthy relationships with others.

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The self-awareness you gain by practicing the five yamas can help you transform negative energy and cultivate a deep, abiding sense of peace. Here is a brief definition of each yama, along with some advice about how to start practicing them today. In Sanskrit the prefix a means "not," while himsa means "harming, injuring, killing, or doing violence."

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Niyama is our self discipline and internal forces. Positive upkeep of these internal forces promotes growth and strength of the self. A few ideals within Niyama are purification, contentment, self-reflection, and devotion.

The eight limbs of yoga allow us to achieve a spiritual yoga practice. Niyama is the focus inward while still maintaining physical existence during the yoga poses. I connected this idea with the cognitive hypothesis of mental practice in Kinesiology 361. This hypothesis states that during the first stages of learning, mental practice allows for practicing of cognitive elements, imagining movement patterns, predicting movement consequences, and ruling out inappropriate movements. These thoughts make up a lot of cognitive activity during the first stages of learning. Understanding self discipline and the inward mind, which is niyama, is an important part to the first stage of learning.

Inspiration to wrestle with:

It is estimated that 80% of the contents of our internal mind are negative. How can we change this?

Attached is the corresponding article to the yamas, only with the 5 subcategories of niyamas.

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The five niyamas are constructive tools for cultivating happiness and self-confidence; the opportunities to practice them arise every day. Here is a brief description of each niyama, along with helpful tips to put your spirituality into action.

The sages say that shaucha is not only the foundation for bodily health, it is also the doorway to deeper and more tranquil states of meditation.

1. Self-Purification (Shaucha)

The first niyama, shaucha, means "purification; cleanliness." It includes a number of techniques for cleansing the body as well as the mind, and it has even been called the aim of the entire system of yoga. The sages say that shaucha is not only the foundation for bodily health, it is also the doorway to deeper and more tranquil states of meditation.

Practice Tip: Select wisely from the many choices of food, emotions, and thoughts waiting to come into your body and mind. As the body becomes purified you will experience radiant health; as the mind becomes purified you will feel increasingly clear, friendly, and cheerful.

2. Contentment (Santosha)

The word santosha means "contentment" as well as "delight, happiness, joy." It comes from an experience of acceptance-of life, of ourselves, and of whatever life has brought us. When we are content, we are happy. Thus-and here is the key to this niyama-through the power of contentment, happiness becomes our choice.

Tapas focuses energy, creates fervor, and increases strength and confidence. The practice of asanas is a form of tapas for the body; meditation is a tapas that purifies and focuses the mind.

Practice Tip: Let go of the past. Do not condemn yourself for not being wiser, wealthier, or more successful than you are. Free your mind of expectations. Then you will see life in a larger context and be able to ride its ups and downs with equanimity.

How do you achieve contentment when inwardly you are disappointed and striving for change and improvement? Create it. Try to keep in mind the yogic premise that whatever you have in the present moment is enough. Once you do this, happiness will find an enduring place in your life; whatever aspirations you have for the future will simply add to your joy.

3. Self-Discipline (Tapas)

The literal definition of tapas is "heat," in this case the heat that builds during periods of determined effort. Tapas accompanies any discipline that is willingly and gladly accepted in order to bring about a change of some kind-whether it be improved health, a new habit, better concentration, or a different direction in life. Tapas focuses energy, creates fervor, and increases strength and confidence. The practice of asanas is a form of tapas for the body; meditation is a tapas that purifies and focuses the mind.

Practice Tip: Remember that tapas can go hand in hand with any task-even something as mundane as cleaning the bathroom floor. Whenever we perform our actions with full determination and effort, they are performed with tapas.

Through the ardor of tapas, choose to make healthy changes in your life-but focus on only one or two changes at a time. Take small steps that can be accomplished successfully, and find replacements for habits that are unproductive.

Self-surrender is not a process of defeat or of mindlessly submitting to another's will. It is the act of giving ourselves to a higher purpose.

4. Self-Study (Svadhyaya)

Svadhyaya means, literally, "to recollect (to remember, to contemplate, to meditate on) the Self." It is the effort to know the Self that shines as the innermost core of your being.

Practice Tip: Begin with the study of writings that inspire you to feel the presence of the indwelling spirit. Then begin to apply svadhyaya in your daily life by practicing the yamas and niyamas, the asanas, breath awareness, and meditation, and learn to recognize when you are acting in harmony with your goals and when you are unconsciously acting counter to them.

5. Self-Surrender (Ishvara Pranidhana)

Ishvara refers to all-pervading consciousness; pranidhana means "to surrender." Together, these words may be translated as "trustful surrender to God," the last and most important of the niyamas, and perhaps the most difficult for students to embrace. This niyama is not a process of defeat or of mindlessly submitting to another's will. It is the act of giving ourselves to a higher purpose.

Practice Tip: When you practice meditation, observe the thoughts and desires that distract your concentration, and instead, rest your attention in the center of your being. At such times you may be able to transcend the limitations of your attachments and sense the presence of inner stillness.

In whatever form it presents itself, that experience, the sages tell us, guides us toward wholeness and the fulfillment of our inward quest.
Text adapted from Yoga: Mastering the Basics by Rolf Sovik and Sandra Anderson.

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The five niyamas are constructive tools for cultivating happiness and self-confidence; the opportunities to practice them arise every day. Here is a brief description of each niyama, along with helpful tips to put your spirituality into action. The sages say that shaucha is not only the foundation for bodily health, it is also the doorway to deeper and more tranquil states of meditation.

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The Asana is the physical postures of yoga. These include poses like "warrior 1" and "downward dog." This is what you typically think of when you think of yoga.

I connected asana with the kinesiology concept of transfer. Transfer is defined as the gain (or loss) in proficiency of one skill as the result of practice on some other skill. I didn't start yoga until my senior year in high school. Despite this, when I started, some of the poses and yogic ideals  came naturally to me. I was a three sport athlete in high school, and was very in shape when I started yoga. My muscles were strong. One pose that I was very good at from the start of practicing yoga was chair pose. During high school, I lifted weights for sports. I squatted the squat rack just about every week, so I was very used to this motion. Once I got to yoga, chair pose was familiar to me, but still slightly different. The use of my thigh muscles in this squatting pose was transferred from my weightlifting experience to my asana practice. The only difference between the chair pose and squatting a squat rack is the positioning of the feet on the ground. In yoga, the toes touch and knees touch and the motion is static. In weightlifting, the feet and knees are hip width apart, and the motion is fluid. Despite the differences, I came into yoga a pro at chair pose, and I think this was due to transfer of motor skills from weightlifting squats.

Inspiration to wrestle with:

Chair pose is often called "fierce pose." It promotes a feeling of strength. What poses or settings in your life do you find your strength in?

Attached is a 10 minute Asana flow sequence. These are some of the basic yoga asana postures.

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Pranayama is breath. One of the main goals in yoga is to link breath to movement. During vinyasa yoga, ujjayi breath is utilized in order to bring energy and strength to the center of the body. This form of breath is characterized by an audible exhale through the nose -an ocean like sound- with lips sealed.

As a yoga instructor, I cue breath for movement. One thing that stuck out to me in teacher training was the idea that less is more with cues. This connected to verbal instructions in Kinesiology 361. Being precise is one of the main guidelines of verbal instruction. When we were taught as yoga teachers, we were instructed to use a simple "inhale" and "exhale" for verbal cues, instead of something like "as you lift your right arm up and twist is back to set up for dancer pose inhale." Less is more, and precision is key. All of the verbal instruction guidelines of this course, beyond just precision, really resonated with me as a yoga instructor because all of the topics that were talked about were relevant to my teachings.

Inspiration to wrestle with:

We often times try to control our worries by making them more complex and keeping them at the forefront of our minds. What can we accomplish if we release control by simplifying and give in to breath?

Below is a four minute video on how to successfully express your ujjayi breath!

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Yoga Breath Control | 3 Steps to Ujjayi Pranayama

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Pratyahara is the detachment of external senses. This happens in the yoga practice when breath (pranayama) and asana (postures) are linked, and the Yama and Niyama are intact.

When learning about proprioception in Kinesiology 361, I thought about pratyahara. Proprioceptors are specialized mechanoreceptors in the muscles, tendons, joints, and vestibular apparatus that provide us with uninterrupted knowledge of the body position and orientation. These receptive processes are the only possible way that a yogi is able to detach from their external senses in order to achieve this limb of yoga. This is through our ability to understand where our body is in space without actually thinking about where we are on a conscious level.

Inspiration to wrestle with:

"Your heart must become a sea of love. Your mind must become a river of detachment." - Sri Chinmon

Below is a pose called crow pose in yoga. It explains proprioception in terms of this pose! I came across this and thought it was an interesting and relevant photo.

source: https://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/senses/proprioception/

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Dhyana is meditation, or an uninterrupted flow of concentration.

I connected this concept with attention and more specifically, a primary and secondary tasks during movement. The reason that many people practice yoga is to get out of their heads. And while they are focused on this complex primary task of the physical practice, they are not able to focus on what's bothering them with their daily lives. These postures create an uninterrupted flow of concentration, or dhyana. This is often times brought up in a yoga class and I am guessing many people brush it off, but the data about primary and secondary tasks during movement in relation to attention really brings this concept into context.

Inspiration to wrestle with:

"When you really pay attention, everything is your teacher" - Unknown

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Samadhi is the eighth limb of yoga because it is the most difficult to attain. It is defined as a feeling of wholeness and connection to the universe.

When learning about Neurological measures in Kinesiology 361, I thought about some research that I read about that is happening at the Center for Healthy Mind's here in Madison. The article is called "Meditation affects brain networks differently in long-term meditators and novices." In this study, a monk (who has a very strong connection with the universe, or samadhi) a somewhat experienced meditator, and a non-meditator (both of which who doesn't have meditation practice or a strong connection to samadhi) were placed into different fMRI machines. They were flashed emotionally positive, emotionally negative, and emotionally neutral images, and were asked to label them as such. One result to this study that stuck with me was that the monk, who has a strong spiritual connection to the universe, had a reaction in the amygdala (emotional center of the brain) that was substantially smaller than a non-meditator. To me, this shows that Samadhi is important for emotional health. Scientists are using neurological measures such as MRI machines to show these important advances.

Inspiration to wrestle with:

“Samadhi is the journey from individual to collective consciousness. The steps of Samadhi are the steps towards reaching the collective consciousness. In meditation, the more we radiate love, compassion, peace, harmony and tranquility, the more is our contribution towards the collective consciousness. The more we positively contribute towards the collective consciousness the more is our progress in Samadhi.”  - Amit Ray

Attached is the article from UW - Madison.

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Mental training such as mindfulness meditation - an accepting awareness of the present moment - has been shown to alter networks in the brain and improve emotional and physical well-being. But researchers are still discovering how such practices change the brain and what differences exist between people who meditate regularly and those who do not.

In one of the largest studies of its kind to date, published in the journal NeuroImage, a team of researchers at the Center for Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin-Madison examined brain activity in non-meditators, new meditators, and long-term meditators with thousands of hours of lifetime experience. The researchers discovered differences in emotion networks of the brain among these groups.

"Overall these findings are important because they show that alterations in key brain circuits associated with emotion regulation can be produced by mindfulness meditation," says Richard Davidson, William James and Vilas Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry at UW-Madison, who led the work. "Some changes can occur in a relatively short time while other changes require much more practice."

The study included more than 150 adults. The long-term meditators already practiced daily and had completed multi-day meditation retreats. New meditators were randomly assigned to an eight-week mindfulness-based stress reduction course that included meditation. The control group, made up of people with no meditation experience, was randomly assigned to a "health enhancement program" over the same time period that included well-being practices, but not meditation specifically.

After an eight-week period, participants viewed and labeled photos as either emotionally positive, negative or neutral while undergoing a brain scan by functional magnetic resonance imaging.

Both long-term practitioners and new meditators - when compared to non-meditators - showed reduced activity in the amygdala when they viewed emotionally-positive images. The amygdala is an area of the brain critical for emotion and detecting important information from the environment.

The researchers also found that more experience with meditation practice on retreat among long-term meditators was associated with reduced activity in their amygdalae when viewing negative images. While reductions in reactivity to positive images were seen with across all levels of training, this indicates that modulating reactivity to negative emotional challenges requires more training.

"These findings are important in demonstrating functional changes in a key circuit underlying emotion regulation after just eight weeks of mindfulness practice," says Davidson. "They are also sobering in highlighting the fact that alterations in responsivity to challenging negative images occurs only after several thousand hours of practice."

Mindfulness practices decrease the extent to which emotional stimuli hijack us, the researchers say, and it may simply be that less meditation practice is required to change the brain's response to positive images than to negative ones.

"The amygdala is not so much about feeling good or positive experience; it's a salience detector and helps alert us that something important is happening in our environment," says lead study author Tammi Kral, a graduate student in psychology at UW-Madison. "A heightened response in the amygdala is more linked to grasping or wanting something. So, it makes sense to not have as strong of a response, even in the face of positive stimuli, because equanimity is a goal."

She adds that lower activity in the amygdala in response to negative images was a general trend across meditators, but was strongest and most significant in long-term meditators with more intense retreat experience.

In addition, the team discovered that, following eight weeks of training, people new to meditation showed an increase in connectivity between the amygdala and an area of the brain that supports executive function (which includes self-regulation and goal tracking) and emotion, the ventromedial prefrontal cortex.

This was not seen in long-term meditators, perhaps because emotion regulation becomes more automatic with increased practice, the researchers surmise.

Though the team analyzed data from the whole brain to find other differences, the study did not focus on other ways positive emotion may be altered in the brain, including participants' ability to savor positive emotions, which is known to be among the benefits of these mental training practices.

Because researchers wanted to understand meditation's impact on a non-clinical population, the study did not include people who took medications for mental health disorders or had a diagnosed psychiatric disorder within the past year. But the team hopes to expand the research in the future to look at a mix of people with and without mental health disorders to see if the findings are similar.

Finding ways to link the brain activity results to how people regulate their emotions in real-life circumstances is another important step in understanding how meditation affects people's emotional well-being in their daily lives.
The research was made possible by grants from the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine grant (P01AT004952) and the National Institute of Mental Health (R01-MH43454).

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Meditation affects brain networks differently in long-term meditators and novices

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Mental training such as mindfulness meditation - an accepting awareness of the present moment - has been shown to alter networks in the brain and improve emotional and physical well-being. But researchers are still discovering how such practices change the brain and what differences exist between people who meditate regularly and those who do not.

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Dharana is another word for drishti, or gaze. This is a very important aspect of yoga, especially during balance postures. The yogi sets their eyes to a point on the environment in front of them in order to focus.

Setting our gaze is sometimes a difficult task depending on the environment we are practicing in. At the studio I practice in, I set my gaze at the same spot  (provided that my usual go-to spot in the studio isn't taken), the righthand corner of a window across the street. This changes with weather and sunlight, but is usually pretty consistent. I feel very balanced with this gaze point. However, when I go to the studio in my hometown, the front wall is not a window, but rather a white wall. It is difficult to find a gaze point ahead of me because it is so plain. Often times, I feel myself scrambling to set my gaze here. When I read about saccades, rapid movements of the eye to different fixation points, in the lecture notes I immediately thought about this white wall and my difficulty in setting my gaze. Our lecture notes state that saccades can occur at speeds up to 600 degrees/second. I thought this was super interesting, because in yoga, we often are scrambling to find a dristi when balancing. This statistic backed up that our eyes are hard at work!

Inspiration to wrestle with:

"What we see depends mainly on what we look for" - John Lubbock

During my yoga teacher training I came across this article about setting a dristi. It was a great spiritual read! The photo on the cover of the article is one of my favorite poses: warrior 2. This pose is so empowering because of the dominance of the dristi.

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The practice of drishti is a gazing technique that develops concentration-and teaches you to see the world as it really is.

We humans are predominantly visual creatures. As every yoga practitioner has discovered, even during practice we find ourselves looking at the pose, outfit, or new hairstyle of the student on the next mat. We stare out the window or at the skin flaking between our toes, as though these things were more interesting than focusing on God realization. And thwack! Where our eyes are directed, our attention follows.

Our attention is the most valuable thing we have, and the visible world can be an addictive, overstimulating, and spiritually debilitating lure. The habit of grasping at the world is so widespread that the spiritual teacher Osho coined a term for it: "Kodakomania." If you have any doubt about the power of the visual image and the value of your attention, just think of the billions of dollars the advertising industry spends on photography every year!

When we get caught up in the outer appearance of things, our prana (vitality) flows out of us as we scan the stimulating sights. Allowing the eyes to wander creates distractions that lead us further away from yoga. To counteract these habits, control and focus of the attention are fundamental principles in yoga practice. When we control and direct the focus, first of the eyes and then of the attention, we are using the yogic technique called drishti.

The increasing popularity and influence of the Ashtanga Vinyasa method of yoga, taught for more than 60 years by Sri K. Pattabhi Jois, have introduced drishti to thousands of practitioners. On a simple level, drishti technique uses a specific gazing direction for the eyes to control attention. In every asana in Ashtanga, students are taught to direct their gaze to one of nine specific points.

In Urdhva Mukha Svanasana (Upward-Facing Dog Pose), for instance, we gaze at the nose tip: Nasagrai Drishti. In meditation and in Matsyasana (Fish Pose), we gaze toward the Ajna Chakra, the third eye: Naitrayohmadya (also called Broomadhya) Drishti. In Adho Mukha Svanasana (Downward-Facing Dog Pose), we use Nabi Chakra Drishti, gazing at the navel. We use Hastagrai Drishti, gazing at the hand, in Trikonasana (Triangle Pose). In most seated forward bends, we gaze at the big toes: Pahayoragrai Drishti. When we twist to the left or right in seated spinal twists, we gaze as far as we can in the direction of the twist, using Parsva Drishti. In Urdhva Hastasana, the first movement of the Sun Salutation, we gaze up at the thumbs, using Angusta Ma Dyai Drishti. In Virabhadrasana I (Warrior Pose I), we use Urdhva Drishti, gazing up to infinity. In every asana, the prescribed drishti assists concentration, aids movement, and helps orient the pranic (energetic) body.

The full meaning of drishti isn't limited to its value in asana. In Sanskrit, drishti can also mean a vision, a point of view, or intelligence and wisdom. The use of drishti in asana serves both as a training technique and as a metaphor for focusing consciousness toward a vision of oneness. Drishti organizes our perceptual apparatus to recognize and overcome the limits of "normal" vision.

Our eyes can only see objects in front of us that reflect the visible spectrum of light, but yogis seek to view an inner reality not normally visible. We become aware of how our brains only let us see what we want to see-a projection of our own limited ideas. Often our opinions, prejudices, and habits prevent us from seeing unity. Drishti is a technique for looking for the Divine everywhere-and thus for seeing correctly the world around us. Used in this way, drishti becomes a technique for removing the ignorance that obscures this true vision, a technique that allows us to see God in everything.

Of course, the conscious use of the eyes in asana isn't limited to the Ashtanga Vinyasa tradition. In Light on Pranayama, for example, B.K.S. Iyengar comments that "the eyes play a predominant part in the practice of asanas." Besides its use in asana, drishti is applied in other yogic practices. In the kriya (cleansing) technique of trataka, or candle gazing, the eyes are held open until tears form. This technique not only gives the eyes a wash but also challenges the student to practice overriding unconscious urges-in this case, the urge to blink.

Sometimes in meditation and pranayama practices the eyes are held half-opened and the gaze is turned up toward the third eye or the tip of the nose. In the Bhagavad Gita (VI.13) Krishna instructs Arjuna, "One should hold one's body and head erect in a straight line and stare steadily at the tip of the nose." When using the inner gaze, sometimes called Antara Drishti, the eyelids are closed and the gaze is directed in and up toward the light of the third eye. As Iyengar puts it, "The closure of the eyes ... directs the sadhaka (practitioner) to meditate upon Him who is verily the eye of the eye... and the life of life."

Drishti Tips

As with many spiritual techniques, with drishti there is a danger of mistaking the technique for the goal. You should dedicate your use of the body (including the eyes) to transcending your identification with it. So when you look at an object during your practice, don't focus on it with a hard gaze. Instead, use a soft gaze, looking through it toward a vision of cosmic unity. Soften your focus to send your attention beyond outer appearance to inner essence.

You should never force yourself to gaze in a way that strains your eyes, brain, or body. In many seated forward bends, for example, the gazing point may be the big toes. But many practitioners, at certain stages in their development, must take care not to create such an intense contraction of the back of the neck that this discomfort overwhelms all other awareness. Rather than forcing the gaze prematurely, you should allow it to develop naturally over time.

In general, practitioners should use the various bahya (external) gazing points during more externally oriented yoga practices, including asanas, kriyas (cleansing practices), seva (the service work of karma yoga), and bhakti (devotion); use the antara (internal) gaze to enhance contemplative and meditative practices. If you find yourself closing the eyes during any practice and focusing on the dramas or perplexities of life instead of being able to maintain a neutral, detached focus, re-establish an outer gaze. On the other hand, if the outer gaze becomes a distraction to your concentration, perhaps an inner-directed correction is necessary.

A fixed gaze can help enormously in balancing poses like Vrksasana (Tree Pose), Garudasana (Eagle Pose), Virabhadrasana III (Warrior Pose III), and the various stages of Hasta Padangusthasana (Hand-to-Big-Toe Pose). By fixing the gaze on an unmoving point, you can assume the characteristics of that point, becoming stable and balanced. More importantly, constant application of drishti develops ekagraha, single-pointed focus. When you restrict your visual focus to one point, your attention isn't dragged from object to object. In addition, without these distractions, it's much easier for you to notice the internal wanderings of your attention and maintain balance in mind as well as body.

Drishti-The True View

Throughout the history of yoga, clear, true perception has been both the practice and goal of yoga. In the Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna tells his disciple, Arjuna, "You are not able to behold me with your own eyes; I give thee the divine eye, behold my Lordly yoga" (11.8). In the classic exposition of yoga, the Yoga Sutra, Patanjali points out that in viewing the world, we tend not to see reality clearly, but instead get deluded by the error of false perception. In Chapter II, verse 6, he says that we confuse the act of seeing with the true perceiver: purusha, the Self. He continues, in verse 17, to say that this confusion about the true relationship between the act of seeing, the object seen, and the identity of the Seer is the root cause of suffering. His cure for this suffering is to look correctly into the world around us.

How are we to do this? By maintaining a prolonged, continuous, single-pointed focus on the goal of yoga: samadhi, or complete absorption into purusha. The practice of drishti gives us a technique with which to develop single-pointed concentration of attention. The hatha yogi uses a kind of "x-ray vision" comprised of viveka (discrimination between "real view" and "unreal, apparent view") and vairagya (detachment from a mistaken identification with either the instrument of seeing or that which is seen). This basic misidentification is called avidya (ignorance), and its counterpart, vidya, is our true identity.

The bhakti yogi uses drishti in a slightly different way, constantly turning a loving, longing gaze toward God. Through imagination the vision of the Divine appears in the form of Krishna, and the whole world becomes prasad (holy nourishment). In both cases, drishti provides a kind of enhanced yogic vision that allows us to see past outer differences ( asat, in Sanskrit) to inner essence or Truth ( sat). If we remove ignorance through these practices, we can then see through deception and delusion.

When we charge our eyes with yogic vision, we see our true Self. As we gaze at others, we perceive our own form, which is Love itself. We no longer see the suffering of other beings as separate from our own; our heart is filled with compassion for the struggling of all these souls to find happiness. The yogic gaze emerges from an intense desire to achieve the highest goal of unitive consciousness, rather than from egoistic motives that create separation, limitation, judgment, and suffering.

Like all yogic practices, drishti uses the blessed gifts of a human body and mind as a starting place for connecting to our full potential-the wellspring that is the source of both body and mind. When we clear our vision of the covering of habits, opinions, ideas, and their projections about what is real and what is false, we gaze beyond outer differences toward the absolute Truth.
David Life is the cofounder of Jivamukti Yoga.

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We humans are predominantly visual creatures. As every yoga practitioner has discovered, even during practice we find ourselves looking at the pose, outfit, or new hairstyle of the student on the next mat. We stare out the window or at the skin flaking between our toes, as though these things were more interesting than focusing on God realization.